Reports from Cuba’s Venezuela: What government control of the media means in Venezuela

What Government Control Of The Media Means In Venezuela

You would think from the headlines of El Universal, El Mundo and Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias shown above, that the Government had scored a big victory in signing a collective bargaining agreement with Sidor workers and managing to appease Venezuela’s steel conglomerate and its unions.

There is no legally signed or approved contract. It has not been approved by the Assembly of workers, nor has it been signed by the Executive Committee of the union. This is simply a media operation by the Government taking advantage of its almost total control over all the print and broadcast media. For more than 15 million Venezuelans, the Government won in its fight against the “right” trying to destabilize it using Sidor. When and if there are more protests in the upcoming days, the Government will remind everyone that a contract was signed and the workers can’t go to work because a small group of “right wing” union workers (I would like to meet just one!) decided to boycott the agreement. You and I and others that read Tal Cual or Damian Prat will know it is not true. But it does not matter. The Government does not care about Sidor producing or union workers having rights. All it cares about is its image, which it can control via its control of the media.